Sorry If I am Stepping On Toes

[Jerry Thibeau]

Selling to dealers over the phone is not easy. They get hounded daily with sales calls. I'd love to have a dollar for every time this line was used: "All you have to do is sell one more car a month to pay for...."

I've found that a brief conversation with permission to send an e-mail is a good way to keep the door open.

Also go back to your happy customers and ask each of them to provide you with a referral. Helps if you can drop a name at the start of your conversation.

 

[CAORYAN]

Yeah, name dropping works great actually. I have a lot of relationships with corporate people of large dealer groups who let me use their names and it works wonders.

The car guy in me wants to close now but my gut says work the sales cycle, I know where they are and can get in front of them by phone, email, and mail. I use all 3 in some cases. I try not to be so "sells pitchy" if you know what I mean. I have a catchy way of introducing myself that tends to work ok.

I guess I am chatting with the right guy being that you are a phone up ninja

 

[OmniQuest Enterprises]

I always announce myself, my company and what we do real quick then ask if they have a minute. I know, not suppose to ask close ended questions when selling but that's just it! We are selling to sales professionals. Don't try to "sell" them. The take away, bait and switch, contest close, hard press or the "keep up with the jones" won't work on these guys and will probably burn a bridge to a certain degree. Don't try to "sell" them.
After I ask if they have a minute about 30-40% of the time I'm told they are busy so I ask them when I should call back, (I know, again with the close ended question), I always get a time to call back and they are almost always ready to talk, sometimes briefly. From there I set up a demo. Works pretty well. I've just accept that some calls are a two call process and leave it at that.
The toughest part for me is when the ism doesn't make the decision, would like to sign, but tries to pitch the decision maker on my products and services and gets turned down. Then I'm dead in the water for a while. You can't try to go above their head for obvious reasons! I usually try to find out who the decision maker is first and meet with them. But meeting with the decision maker is not always possible. Any tips?

 

[Jerry Thibeau]

Another little trick is to ask to speak with a salesperson. They pick up the phone thinking it's a customer. I then tell them who I am and what I do. I then probe them for information. They'll tell you what they have and why they do or do not like it. They can also tell you who is running the show. I wouldn't want to be chasing after the DP when the DP is in Florida for the winter.

 

[ryan.leslie]

Jeff, Alex and Joe,

Got an idea for you but I want royalties. I think you could fund DR with a pay to access forum entitled "How to not be a Vendor." I'd guess 50% plus of the folks on this forum are trying to figure out how to successfully sell something to the other 50%.

Maybe you could start a pay per lead site right here on the forum for all of us. Dealer A hand raises that they may be interested in a new 3rd party lead provider, you ask them to fill out a form of all the other tech products they may or may not be interested in, and then y'all auction off his contact info to the highest bidders for every product he checked, what the heck, just tell everybody they were the highest bidder, we want Dealer A to get as much competitive information as possible and the business model gets a lot more profitable that way, right?

Tongue firmly placed in cheek of course,

Ryan

 

[Jerry Thibeau]

Got an idea for you but I want royalties. I think you could fund DR with a pay to access forum entitled "How to not be a Vendor."

Ryan,

Here's my view on the matter. When I originally became a fixture in this community I did so with a few things in mind.

1. Learn from other industry experts. While I specialize in a few areas, I know that my skills are lacking in others. DR has been a great place to become more knowledgeable about our industry.

2. I felt that DR would be a good place to demonstrate my abilities as a phone and Internet trainer. Hopefully this would lead to finding new clients.

3. Always looking to build relationships with other people in the industry and this has been a great place to do so.

Now in regards to number 2, I believe there's an art to subtle selling without coming right out and making yourself appear as pushy salesman promoting a product or service. I have found that giving back to the community in the way of free information and advice (when solicited) is the best way to earn the trust and respect of potential customers.

The thing that is nice about DR is the fact that it's not a free-for-all like some of the other sites. I am constantly amazed at some of the crap spewed on the Internet and how people buy into it.

 

[ryan.leslie]

I believe there's an art to subtle selling without coming right out and making yourself appear as pushy salesman promoting a product or service

Couldn't agree with you more, Jerry. Like Jeff from Omniquest said a few posts back, Good luck selling a true salesman! "If I could, would you?" and "on a scale of 1 to 10 where would you say you are" , how's that go about bringing a knife to a gun fight?

Acknowledge that the crafty sales pitch you learned in a seminar isn't all that crafty to the guy that made it up. That is a good place to start "selling" from.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[Jerry Thibeau]

Acknowledge that the crafty sales pitch you learned in a seminar isn't all that crafty to the guy that made it up. That is a good place to start "selling" from.

Keep in mind I wouldn't want to be that guy that has a dealer say, "how come you don't even use the stuff you teach when you're trying to sell me."

CRM vendors, here's a good one for you. When you have a potential client, put them in your Automoitve CRM system and then tell them that you're going to treat them like a regular customer looking for a car. Tell them they are going to get a series of e-mails and or phone calls over the next several days. Then build an action plan to do just that, showcasing all the different tools in your system.

 

[ghen]

Keep in mind I wouldn't want to be that guy that has a dealer say, "how come you don't even use the stuff you teach when you're trying to sell me."

CRM vendors, here's a good one for you. When you have a potential client, put them in your Automoitve CRM system and then tell them that you're going to treat them like a regular customer looking for a car. Tell them they are going to get a series of e-mails and or phone calls over the next several days. Then build an action plan to do just that, showcasing all the different tools in your system.

See that's good because its different. When I'm marketed by vendors they just keep calling me until I actually pick up. They never leave voicemails, but I see their number on the phone If someone told me how I was going to be marketed and how it related to my situation I would be instantly interested!